A US$303 million contract to build the world’s first offshore nuclear power plant has gone to a St Petersburg shipyard, confirmed the city’s governor last week.
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“There is no analogue to the plant, which is being built at the Baltiysky Zavod, in the world. If all goes well, we will have an excellent chance of entering the international market too,” Valentina Matviyenko said.
Baltiysky Zavod has so far finished assembling eight steam generators for the offshore nuclear power plant. The contract to build the facility for the Rosatom state-run nuclear power corporation was signed in February 2009.
The Baltiysky Zavod shipyard is expected to complete the offshore NPP in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Demand for offshore nuclear power plants is expected to be high in regions experiencing power shortages and requiring stable energy supplies. A number of countries, including developing economies have already shown an interest in the project on condition that Russia develops a sample model first.
The Russian nuclear industry increasingly sees the Arctic shelf as a new growth market. In an odd marriage of oil and nuclear, Russian nuclear industry papers from 2008 suggested the construction of nuclear-powered underwater drilling ships, as well as using nuclear-powered icebreakers and floating nuclear power plants for the development of offshore hydrocarbon projects.
A report from the Bellona Foundation concludes that the Russian nuclear industry is pushing for the use of nuclear technology on the shelf. The report named “From Polar to Nuclear? ‘Nuclearification’ of the Russian offshore oil and gas industry” was presented at a hearing in the European Parliament last year.
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